why you should get into teaching in the UK - top tips for success.

05/08/2019

how to get into teaching in the UK.

a Randstad guide.

If you’re a teacher from overseas looking for your next career step in education, or you want to experience teaching in a world class education system, then teaching in the UK could be perfect for you.

Even though the move to a new country, culture and lifestyle may seem daunting, there’s plenty of support and resources to help make the transition easier. We’re going to look at:

Gaining qualified teacher status

Reaching out to a UK recruitment agency

Top interview tips

UK teacher pay scale

Settling into life in the UK

Department for Education overseas teaching programmes

how to gain UK qualified teacher status (QTS).

As you may expect, the first thing to consider is are you eligible to teach in the UK? All teachers who want to teach in UK schools need to gain qualified teacher status (QTS). The good news? You may be able to gain this without any further training or assessment, if you’ve already trained to teach in the following areas - result!

If you are from outside of the above areas, you will need your qualifications verified through NARIC - click here for more information.

working in england.

You can work in England without a VISA if you are from inside the EU or have ancestry and can apply for a UK or EU passport.

If you don't qualify for these, you will need to apply for a UK Tier 2 (General) or UK Tier 5 (Youth mobility) VISA. For further information on eligibility, click here.

contacting a UK recruitment agency.

When looking for a teaching. job in a new country, one way to go about this is to contact a recruitment agency.

What are the benefits of this?

A dedicated recruitment consultant to support your job search

A team with knowledge of the local education recruitment industry

Support with job searching, interviewing, and CPD training

Ability to find you a job before you move to the UK

At Randstad, our local recruiters are always keen to help overseas teaching candidates find a job in the UK, and settle into their new lifestyle. Take a look at this video to see how our London team supported Adam’s transition to a UK school:

Want some more real life stories of teachers who we have supported in their move to the UK? Click here to read about Adrian and Ian’s experiences.

interview tips.

One of the key benefits for UK schools in having international teachers just like you in their classrooms, is the new teaching methods and styles you can inspire their pupils with. But, before you can start teaching, you’ll need to find a job you like, ace your interview and secure a role.

We’ve all heard that well-known phrase: fail to prepare, prepare to fail. Your interview may be well be completed over a video interviewing tool such as Skype, before you move to the UK/ So, take a look at our top interview tips for overseas teachers:

Familiarise yourself with the UK curriculum

Research the school - look at their website, social media, OFSTED reports

the UK teacher pay scale.

One of the most common questions that gets asked is: how much will I get paid? In the UK, teacher salaries are based on a pay scale. With the UK education secretary Damian Hinds recently announcing a 2.75% pay rise for teachers for the 2019/20 academic year, starting salaries for qualified teachers range from: £24,373 outside London and £30,480 in inner London.

settling into life in the UK.

As with any house move, let alone country move, you’ll have lots of things to consider, such as:

Where to live?

What are the transport links?

How do I sort out my wifi/bills/phone contract?

What’s in the local area to do?

Where can I meet new people?

One of the benefits of working with a recruitment agency is that your consultant will be able to support you through this process, and offer you advice on the best locations to live in for your new job, and give advice on things to do in your local area.

Adrian says:

It’s important to choose somewhere in the UK that is suitable for you. For example, if you're outgoing, I'd choose a bigger city as it’s likely there’ll be more things to do in the city. Make sure to go out and do something that you enjoy

department for education overseas teaching programmes.

The DfE are currently offering two fully funded recruitment programmes for overseas teachers:

Spain's Visiting Teachers Programme (SVTP)

If you qualified as a teacher in Spain, you may be eligible to apply for Spain’s Visiting Teachers Programme. Run jointly by the Department for Education and Spain’s Ministry of Education and Vocational Training, this programme supports teachers from Spain to teach modern foreign languages in schools across England. For teachers recruited through the programme, an acclimatisation support package is provided to assist in your transition to teaching in England.

The good news? Randstad is the sole recruitment supplier on this programme. So, if you think you may be eligible for this programme for the 2020/21 academic year, please email the team on svtp@randstad.co.uk.

STEM International Teacher Recruitment Programme

If you’re a qualified maths, science or computer science teacher from Australia, Canada, New Zealand or USA, there’s support available to teach in England through the Department for Education’s STEM International Teacher Recruitment Programme. At Randstad, we are one of the suppliers on this programme. Interested? Email the team on stem@randstad.co.uk.

Feeling inspired to look into a teaching role in the UK? Click here for more information, or browse our current vacancies by clicking the link below.